BLACKMAILER OF MERKEL RIVAL TURNS SELF IN

BERLIN: A blackmail letter sent to the election rival of German Chancellor Angela Merkel was mailed by accident, its author told officials on Monday (Tuesday in Manila), after turning himself in. The man, whose identity was not revealed, said the letter had been penned “in a fit of passing anger” but that he did not plan to send it, the public prosecutor’s office in the western city of Bonn said. The letter had found itself into a pile of mail to be sent out, but the man only discovered it had reached the home of Peer Steinbrueck, of the Social Democrats, when he read about the story in the press, the office said.